Given the critical and financial success of 2K Boston’s underwater anti-utopian masterpiece Bioshock, it’s hardly surprising that the developer’s “next big project” is a shooter, as GameSpot AUreports.

Then again, the words “first-person” don’t precede “shooter” in the job listings posted by 2K Boston, so I guess there’s a chance that a third-person action title could be in the works. However, that seems unlikely, given the studio’s track record with atmospheric and critically adored FPS’s. Currently, the developer is hiring a principal combat designer, multiplayer level designer, and level designer for its next title.

The rumor that’s been circling for a while now is that 2K Boston is working on a game based in the universe of the alien invasion franchise, X-COM, to which 2K currently owns the rights. (Oddly enough, IGN just named X-COM: UFO Defense the greatest PC game of all time.) On the other hand, it could also be a new installment in the SWAT franchise, but that seems a bit too sterile compared to the artistic and philosophical weight of Bioshock.

And while I would want nothing more than to see 2K deliver another brilliant new IP, I’d be very interested (and pleased) to see the studio take on the alien invasion genre, especially if it stuck to a sort of District 9-ish sense of realism and grittiness. 2K Boston head Ken Levine said last month that his team's next project is “more ambitious than anything we’ve ever done. Even more, substantially more, ambitious than Bioshock.” Perhaps some kind of open-world, Fallout 3-esque alien apocalypse kind of thing? I could dig that, especially with Levine and crew behind the wheel.

Any ideas about what 2K Boston’s next title might be? Has anyone here played any of the X-COM games? Thoughts?